The Wilmingtonian., 1887-05-28
SATURDAY, MAY 1887.
What Are we to Believe.

Inc -huhLtH uuEtNt well known mari 1
time journal of New York ty, makes some
surprising statements in regard to the
sailors national home at Snug Harbor. Its |
issue Of 21st inst, in referring to the annual |
reports of certain British institutions whose |
aims are similar to those of Snug Harbor in |
this country, says:
The Thirteth Annual Report of the Brit |
ish McTcantle Marine Service Association is
very cheering-showing, as it does, an in
crease Of membership during the past year
of PAS, bringing the total up to nearly
1000. Incorporated with this body are the
two great Liverpool charities the Home for
Aged Mariners, and the Seamen's Orphan.
age, both of which continue to receive
generous share of public sympathy and sup
port. The benefits of the Home for Aged
Mariners have been conferred, during the
past year, on ITO inmates of the Central
Home, with all found as we'll as on resi-
dents in the Cottage Homes, together with
numerous ont-pensioners living with their
friends. Tue report OF the institution,
feared to supply happy shelter for the
worn-ont fathers of the sea-" is full, free,
and tinctured straight through with the
spirit of beneVolence, in startling contrast
with the choppy, mercantile, lump-sum re-
port of the Superintendent of our national
travesty of charity, the Sailors Snug Har-
Dor. Note the following extract: "Such an
institution necessarily nurses-sometim
only for brief period, but, in most cases,
through long process of breaking up
those decayed mariners, involving much
more care and outlay than for younger per-
sons, and showing, with increasing empha-
sis, the necessity Of the Homes"
The same article continues
Almost entirely dependent for support on
the offerings of the benevolent, and orkng
on yearly sum somewhat less than one-f E
tieth the sum at the disposal of the Snng
Harbor magnates, the directors of the
Homes yet yearly ease the closing days Of
over one hundred "fathers of the sea,
against the eight hundred immured in the
Snug Harbor Prison. The worn-out British
sailor and the British sailors wife, if he
have one, live in a cottage, as untrammeled
as if it were his own, which it practically is
building, to accommodate the overflow, but
it is the practice and the policy of the direc
tors to erect separate cottages, as the fund,
allow, in which the flavor of finstitution
is but dimly perceptible. This is made ap
parent by the present report of the Council
who "hope that they will be entrusted with
sufficient money to build and endow block
Of cottages, so arranged as to accommodate
widows separately Or together" AS a proc
that, where close tistedness is not pledom
inant characteristic, frog essive ideas croI
out, cite the following happy suggestion
Your Council would fuI ther suggest thai
cabins in the main building could, without
much difficulty, be endowed BY tile aggre
gate contributions Of certain liLes Of ships
and steamers, and such cabins named aftel
those lines or firms, aud thus an old servan,
could occupy the cabin named after his line
or employer. The same arrangement coulG
apply to the out-peusiun department, thus
enabling an employer to nominate an ole
employe to an annuity, or friends to secure
provision for one or more Of the aged mar
iners or widows of sea.taring men WHO ar,
now without help"
The question is a!e We to edit the inuen
does contained in the above against I'll,
management Of Snug Hai Dor!
We all remember how in a recent numbe
of one of the foremost monthly periodical
of this country a magazine, almost une
qualed in the variety, excellence and attrac
tiveness of its literary contributions an,
positively without a peer in beauty of pic
torial illustration, remarkable article an
peared upon the topic Of Snug Harbor. Tn
place was described bountiful haven a
rest, snug sequestered home where tn
superaDnuated mariners of This countr
found all needed comforts fol their old age
The article referred to was filled with prett
pictures of both indoors and out. and n
reader could be impressed otherwise tina
with the utmost satisfaction that those VIII
had passed so many Yeas of their lives i
arduous toll, with life itself in daily ris
could now rest pelcGably, free from the bul
lettings Of storms and with the assurance .
generous harborage free of cost for the rt
mainder of their lives.
Yet the magazine and journal referred t
fatty contradict one another in regard I
snug IIarbor. We would wish to know III
truth about the matter. II is hardly prob;
BILE that magazine Of the high standing {
the one ref rred to would Intentionally il
dulge in piece of sensationalism such a
must be the case if the Nautical Gagstte's al
sertions are correct
Il is question Of fact and the New or
press should be in the position easily to al
certain the truth.
Turner's Legislative Jaunt Repudiatrt
Morning News.
Seven dollars day is very large pay f,